The Real Estate Business
by IckleRonnikens
Summary: Draco Malfoy and Astoria Greengrass are happy, soon to be engaged, and looking to buy a house, that was until they met the real estate agent. M Rating for future chapters. Please review.
1. Chapter 1

The Real Estate Business

Disclaimer - I do not own Harry Potter, JK Rowling does, bless her.

Summary - Draco Malfoy and Astoria Greengrass were happy, engaged, and looking to buy a house, that was until they met the real estate agent.

Author note: Please ignore the fact that I totally ignored the fact that the Greengrass sisters attended Hogwarts at the same time as Draco Malfoy and would probably know all about who his enemies were. It's just meaningless fanfiction after all.

01

'Well, this does indeed look like a peaceful neighbourhood, don't you think Draco?'

Draco Malfoy and girlfriend of nearly three years Astoria Greengrass were house hunting in the southern parts of London, very desperate to get out of the fire-trap that had been their apartment complex for nearly twelve months now. The house that they were approaching was far and beyond anything he, Draco, ever expected himself to live in during his life-time. The falling out he had had with his parents since the war had changed him a lot, and this small little suburban house which could easily fit into the dungeons of the Mansion he grew up in, was now something he could only hope to call a home.

He let a smile spread across his face - he had learned to look at life a little differently, being with Astoria was a chance to start a new life, one that didn't involve him bullying others or believing himself to be superior to everyone around him. When he looked again at the small house they approached, he saw a cosy, family home, one that might be safe in case they ever thought of having children.

The house was a typical English suburban house, red brick with white panelled windows and glazed tiled roofing to match. Draco attempted to be open minded about it all, though there wasn't very much leg room to give some magic charm about it, but now that he thought about it, it was a house on the magical market, so it was likely to have some secrets installed somewhere.

'Are you sure you couldn't have just done this without me?' Draco asked as they stopped by a row of neatly kept agapanthus at the neighbour's yard.

'Definitely not,' Astoria said, 'we need to make this decision as a couple, Draco, that's what couples do.'

'But you're so much better at this than I am,' Draco said, 'and I'm sure that whatever you would pick, would be perfect, and I would not complain-'

'Stop being a prat about it, and man up,' she said, tugging at the collar of his shirt, 'you have a stake in this relationship as well, it must be a unanimous decision between us.'

'I just get the feeling that we'll disagree,' Draco said, 'we usually do more often than not with these sorts of things.'

'Well, for big decisions like these,' she said, fumbling with the lock on the small white gate, 'one of us, if not both of us, need to make room for some leeway for one reason or another. I'm sure we can manage.'

'Alright then,' Draco said with a sigh as Astoria finally unhinged the lock on the gate.

'Remember,' she said into his ear as they wandered onto the small path leading up to the front door, 'be nice to our agent, won't you? I asked for quite a few favours at work to get this one, from what I've heard, she's meant to be the best there is-'

'She?' Draco asked in a tone of discontent, his upper lip immediately curling.

His girlfriend threw him a filthy look; but she needn't remind him, for Draco himself suddenly became irate at himself – that was a trait he'd acquired from his father, to disregard the idea that a woman could take on important jobs had always been a part of his upbringing. It was these sorts of things that he was trying to eliminate from his lifestyle, to make himself a better person – the one thing it was doing, was reaffirming his fears of ever turning back to living a life of fear whilst He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was still in power.

'Sorry,' Draco said apologetically, as Astoria knocked on the door and a faint, far-away voice yelled "come in!"

Astoria opened the door and lead the way over the threshold and into a nice little hallway; just to the right was a staircase that led upstairs, to the left an opened doorway into a lounge-room and sitting area and ahead the narrow hallway a door was ajar leading to what looked like the kitchen. Footsteps could be heard bouncing off the walls, before a young woman with silky red hair appeared and approached them, smiling broadly at them.

First and foremost, Draco was far too busy looking her up and down to recognise who she was; she wore very business-like attire, a black business blazer and short business skirt were accompanied well with a white blouse and painfully tall white striped black stilettos. As she approached, she was pinning her silky red hair up into a knot while she juggled with a clipboard underneath her arm - it was at this point she spotted Draco and stopped dead in her tracks.

'Hello there,' Astoria said, stepping forward with her hand outstretched - she was of course oblivious to her identity and clearly approved of her such excellent first impressions.

However, by this stage Draco had finally managed to bring it upon himself to look at the girl's face, and when he recognised who she was his face had gone a stone-white.

'You must be Astoria,' Ginny Weasley said, smiling and putting her poker-face on to shake hands, 'my name is Ginny,' Ginny turned to face Draco and pointed to him, 'but you knew that already, didn't you Mr Malfoy?'

'Oh,' Astoria said as she spotted the awkward look on her boyfriend's face. 'You two... know each other?'

Slowly, regrettably, Draco nodded his head.

There was a very long pause, where both Draco and Ginny glared at one another. As of the end of the war, there were no more real quarrels between he and Harry Potter's gang, they had accepted the fact that he had defected before He-Who-Could-Not-Be-Named had been defeated, and had therefore, along with his parents, been pardoned.

There was still a little bit of tension between them though, after all he – Draco – had for many years bullied them at every opportunity; Ginny was a peculiar case, because being a year lower she received far less attention from him than perhaps those in his year. However, the whole "being poor" innuendo had been his reoccurring joke to all the Weasley's he'd come across, and he had the feeling that he'd bumped into her often enough that she was perhaps as unhappy with him as anyone else.

However, irony worked in mysterious ways, because little did she know, she earned far more money a year than he did now – and by quite a lot.

The last time Draco had had a moment like this, had been Harry Potter himself at the Ministry of Magic – they had, eventually, shook hands very briefly and departed without many words – but he feared Ginny might hex him before he was out of her sight if she had her way.

It was at this point that Astoria, still oblivious of their past, turned to face her boyfriend and crossed her arms.

'Another ex-girlfriend, Draco?' she said to him through gritted teeth, making him turn an awful scarlet, 'what was your excuse with this one?'

'Merlin no,' Ginny said, looking disgusted; she was trying to regather herself, it wasn't professional of her to put personal emotions before a sale, she needed this to work for her jobs sake.

'It's nothing like that darling,' Draco said to his girlfriend, Ginny tried to keep a straight face at these words, 'this is a Weas- Ginny Weasley-'

'Oh, Weasley?' Astoria said as she turned to face Ginny, who nodded, 'you fought in the Great War with Draco?'

'Not with,' Ginny said matter-of-factly.

'But not against, either,' Draco said quickly, 'well, not directly at least...'

'We all know what happened,' Astoria said sternly, waving an airy hand at her boyfriend, 'but you,' she said to Ginny, 'you're the girl dating Harry Potter, are you not?'

Ginny clicked her tongue in annoyance.

'You should never take what Rita Skeeter writes literally,' she said, unfolding her arms and beginning to write with her quill on the clipboard.

'Wait, what are you writing?' Draco asked suddenly before turning to his girlfriend, 'why is she writing already? It's something negative, isn't it?'

'So, you and Harry aren't dating?' Astoria asked Ginny, ignoring Draco.

'Not entirely,' Ginny said with a shrug, 'he's busy with the Ministry rounding up stray Death Eaters,' at this point Ginny looked up at Draco with narrowed eyes, 'and I'm busy with Real Estate, so we are on temporary hiatus.

'But we're not here to talk about my lack of a love life,' Ginny said, clearing her throat and pointing to her clipboard, 'are you going to be able to put aside our differences for an hour or so and buy a house, Malfoy?'

Both girls turned to look at Draco, who looked flustered.

'Umm…' Draco stumbled for words whilst Astoria rolled her eyes.

'That is a yes,' Astoria said after Draco cleared his throat.

'Excellent,' Ginny said, 'this way then.'

And she led them into the lounge-room first, where she began to talk about the up-sides and down-sides of the house. Draco watched her, attempting to keep a straight face whilst on the inside, his lip was curling. His eyes naturally wandered over her body, noting in particularly that her curves were far superior to his girlfriends, and he had to wonder to himself why he had not noticed that during their time at school.

They went from room to room, with mostly the two girls chatting merrily to one another about the house, with Draco only occasionally asking stern questions of importance here and there, and Ginny answering them with sufficient professionalism.

Eventually the three of them were standing outside in the back garden, having finished the tour, and Ginny was carefully explaining all the legal jargon that came with the property.

'It all seems so lovely, and in good order,' Astoria said, once Ginny was through with the formalities and had asked the ultimate question of whether they were ready to sign a binding contract.

'It is,' Draco said in agreement, he was pacing the back garden impatiently, willing to sign right now, but at the same time unsure considering their current financial complications.

'This is the part where I excuse myself, and let the two of you talk,' Ginny said to them, smiling happily and handing Astoria the binding contract with all the information they had just spent collaborating. 'I'll be inside preparing the rest of the paperwork.'

Draco watched Ginny like a hawk as she walked toward the house, her hips were swinging rather seductively; whether it was because she knew he was looking or not, he didn't know, but at least Astoria was busying herself with the contract and didn't spot what Draco was staring at.

'What do you think?' she asked him eventually, looking up.

'Very nice,' Draco said, he was still staring at the door where Ginny had disappeared, but all Astoria could see was him looking at the house with a big stupid grin.

'I think so too, Draco,' she said, pulling him out of his reverie and forcing him to look around, 'what do you think? Are we ready to sign?'

'Right now?' Draco asked with a sigh.

'Well, we don't have to of course,' Astoria said, nodding, 'particularly in our current financial position.'

'Is there a time limit?' Draco asked.

Astoria pondered over the contract some more. 'No, I don't think so,' she said, 'the seller has not put any deadline for a sale, but because it is a binding contract, someone else can sign before us and effectively lock us out of giving any offers.'

Draco bit his lip and stared off into blank space. Money was very tight – he was still looking for a job that his father could not deny him out of influence, and Astoria was working part-time in a low-wage sales department while she studied for her dream job. They could not ask for a loan from the bank, and the money that they would have to pay out for the house would leave them deprived of many essentials for several weeks.

'Let's not wait too long then,' Draco said finally, taking his girlfriend's hand and walking her back toward the house.

'That's fine,' Ginny said, after Astoria had explained that they needed a little longer to think about it, and that they would let her know by owl before the end of the week when they can sign. 'You understand though, of course, that if another buyer comes forward and is prepared to sign, there isn't much I can do for you?'

'We understand,' Astoria said with a nod, handing Ginny back the contract, 'thank you. Fingers crossed, we shall all meet back in a mere few days, and we will be ready to sign.'

Ginny nodded and began to write some more details.

'I can also explain to the seller your situation,' Ginny told her, 'and they may be willing for you to sign, and pay monthly increments instead of all at once.'

Astoria looked sideways at Draco, who was surveying Ginny intently.

'We will have to talk about it,' Draco said to her, nodding.

'Absolutely,' Ginny said with a smile and fiddled around in her handbag for a moment.

'When you're ready,' she said, handing Astoria a card with her details on it, 'send an Owl to me directly, not through the agency, that way I can help process things quicker. And whenever you're ready, I'll be ready too, alright?'

'You're brilliant,' Astoria said, moving forward to hug her.

Ginny hugged her back, giving Draco a look as she did. He had stayed relatively quiet through most of the tour, he supposed everyone in the Wizarding World knew by now that he had had a fall-out with his parents, and that money was no longer a formality.

'You could have been nicer to her,' Astoria said with a hiss at her boyfriend once they were back outside and walking along the street.

'I'm sorry you had to see me like that,' Draco said in response, 'but there is just so much history-'

'With Harry Potter, not her,' Astoria said pointedly.

'Might as well be with her, she's Potter's girlfriend,' Draco said whilst pointing his thumb over his shoulder, 'and besides, the whole Weasley family hate mine, so it's all added drama.'

Astoria sighed as they turned into a narrow alley nearby to apparate.

'Just please try to be civil at least next time we see her,' said Astoria pleadingly as they held hands; 'I actually like this house.'

'Me too,' Draco said, and he nodded and promised as they turned on the spot and disapparated.


	2. Chapter 2

02

Two days later, and well before Draco and Astoria were prepared to put any pen to paper, they received an urgent owl from Ginny, insisting that they needed to meet her and it could not wait. Her reasons were quite unclear, but they hazard a guess that someone else had become interested in the property, and that the issue could not be resolved via owl. Regrettably, Astoria found herself unable to get out of work, which meant Draco would have to meet Ginny alone – and he wasn't looking forward to losing his cool without the soothing touch of his girl to set him straight.

'Just remember what you promised,' Astoria had said to him in her hurry to leave for work, 'and be _nice_.'

Draco had nodded but inevitably doubted his ability to be nice; every time he had looked Ginny Weasley up and down the other day, it had made him angry to think that Harry Potter had managed to snag a better-looking girlfriend than him – that generally caused him to see red, and say stupid things.

He appeared on the spot in which he had disapparated from forty-eight hours ago in the alley, and took a deep breath. His feet carried him forward and onto the sidewalk, where he stopped to check his reflection in a mirror of one of the parked muggle cars that lined the street. His silver hair was slicked back the best he could muster, he was clean shaven and wore the same smart suit which he had been wearing to job interviews.

Once satisfied that he didn't look a complete slob, he continued to walk towards the house in which was due to be his future, his new lease on life, and a place he could truly call home.

All thoughts escaped him when he spotted Ginny Weasley standing on the front door step, looking fabulous in her business-like attire and her silky red hair was again tied up in a knot. Draco was lucky she didn't smile when she saw him, for his knees might have buckled over her complete beauty – instead her lips pursed, and she inclined her head slightly to acknowledge his presence.

'Where is your arm cand- err... I mean, Astoria?' Ginny asked him, managing to stop herself mid-insult.

Draco sneered at her and almost dared to make an insult in return. 'Working.'

Ginny nodded. 'Don't you think it's a bad idea to be in my presence without her?' she asked him.

'I can act nice if you can,' Draco said in reply, narrowing his eyes.

Ginny grinned at him in disbelief.

'Alright then,' she said, turning back to the front door and unlocking it, 'shall we?'

Draco made no comment and brushed past her into the house. He could smell the perfume on her, probably something fancy that Potter had bought for her – it made her a little more attractive, Astoria had worn that same scent way back when they had first dated.

'So, what are these complications you mentioned?' Draco asked her, once Ginny had joined him in the living-room.

Ginny nodded and shuffled a few pieces of parchment on her clipboard.

'I'm afraid another couple have become interested in the house,' Ginny said him; she looked up at him for a reaction and Draco attempted to not have one. 'It puts me in a difficult position, considering they are willing and able to sign the binding contract straight away-'

'Oh, right,' Draco said, he tried not to look disheartened.

'They haven't yet,' Ginny said reassuringly, 'I managed to postpone. But a signature is imminent.'

'And we appreciate that, thanks,' Draco said, nodding.

Draco pondered this predicament for a moment, attempting to think what Astoria would do in a situation like this. He started to pace back and forth in front of the fireplace - this might not be what she would have done, but it helped him think about what she might do; and he had to admit to himself, shamefully, he had no idea what Astoria would do in this circumstance.

'So, what does that mean, exactly?' Draco asked finally, staring at Ginny.

Ginny sighed.

'Well,' and she took a deep breath in preparation for a long statement, 'the onus goes back on to you two, and instead of another delay, you have only twenty-four hours post this meeting to sign the contract, or else the contract could be released to the other buyer who can sign the contract right away.'

Draco took a moment to register these words.

'But,' he made a faint noise of disappointment, 'we aren't ready to sign just yet. We need more time.'

'I'm afraid you're almost out of time,' Ginny said with a smile and a shrug.

Draco couldn't help but notice her enjoyment in saying those few words.

'The policy is there to protect the first interested party,' said Ginny continuing on before he could throw a curse word at her, 'but ultimately if another buyer is prepared to commit to the binding contract sooner, then they are given preference. It's all about money-'

'Oh please, I of all people know it's about money, you don't need to lecture me on that,' Draco said in anger, he hated how much she was enjoying this.

'However,' Ginny said, putting up a finger and preparing to ignore his vigour, 'there are a couple of things you can still do to make sure you're able to sign on the dotted line, and not someone else.'

'Name it,' Draco said, nodding.

'Basically, you must prove to me, or rather the agency I represent, that you're a more deserving owner of this house than the other buyer,' Ginny said to him, placing the clipboard on the table in front of her and folding her arms, 'and if I go back to my firm and ensure them that you and Astoria are the perfect fit for this house, then an extension isn't going to be a problem to get.'

Draco contemplated these words for a moment, wondering where she was going with this.

'OK,' he said finally, shrugging, 'how do I do that then?'

'A varied number of ways,' Ginny said with a small smile. 'First of all, I actually didn't mind Astoria.'

'And that's... good?' Draco asked curiously.

'The other buyers are complete dicks,' Ginny said to him, with a look of discontent on her face.

'In comparison to me?' Draco asked with raised eyebrows.

'About even,' Ginny said with a nod and half-smile, 'but out of all of you, Astoria was really nice to me, so one point to you two.

'Secondly,' Ginny went on, choosing not to wait for his reaction, 'you have shown me some civility in our two meetings, which is a second big positive for you.'

'It wasn't entirely easy, either,' Draco said honestly.

Ginny chose to ignore these words.

'Thirdly, your credit history,' Ginny said, picking up the clipboard, 'is unlike any I've ever seen before. But I guess, being a Malfoy,' she looked up at him with narrowed eyes, 'it makes perfect sense.'

Draco nodded. 'Well that was because of my father, except he doesn't call the shots for me anymore.'

'Regardless,' Ginny said with a wave of her arm, 'it is an impressive number, and it easily gives you your third point.'

'And so, does that mean you'll-' Draco started to say, but Ginny cut him off.

'Possibly,' Ginny said, putting the clipboard back on the table. 'There is perhaps one more thing you could do for me to help push the adjudication over the edge.'

'Oh yeah?' Draco asked now with an air of confidence in his voice, 'and what's that?'

In the time it took him to blink, Ginny closed the space between them and kissed him. Draco was caught by surprise so much, that several seconds passed before he managed to push her away and stare at her, speechless.

'What the hell do you think-?'

Her mouth was on his again, but he was not caught up in the moment this time and pushed her away again, making sure to keep her at arms lengths.

'Are you insane, Weasel?' he said to her, practically yelling.

Ginny didn't respond.

Her persona seemed to have changed within an instant: her eyes were narrowed, her lips were pursed, and her chest was rising and falling heavily - every single ounce of her professionalism had seemed to leave her the instant she had kissed him.

'Do you really think I will allow you to-?'

With surprising strength, Ginny managed to duck under his arm and kiss him again - she struggled to keep her lips on his as Draco wrestled with her forearms, before he finally forced her away from him and she stumbled backwards, barely managed to stay standing in her stilettos.

'Enough,' Draco said at her, now reaching for his wand.

Ginny did not reach for hers. Instead, she reached up and pulled the scrunchie from her hair, allowing it to cascade down to her waist and shine from the sunlight through the windows.

'Do you realise know how long it's been?' Ginny asked him furiously, 'how long it's been since Harry and I-?'

'I'd prefer not to know,' Draco said, pointing his wand at her in case she made another sudden movement.

'How long has it been for you?' Ginny questioned him.

'I'm quite sure I don't know what you mean,' Draco said, attempting to play dumb.

'How long has it been, Malfoy?' Ginny repeated calmly.

'This isn't very appropriate-'

'How long?' she said loudly, making Draco jump slightly and tighten his grasp on his wand.

Draco cleared his throat and pushed out his chest. 'Last week.'

'Lucky,' Ginny nodded, putting her hands on her hips and whipping her hair off her face, 'it's been almost twelve months for me.'

'What? A pretty think like you-?' Draco started to say with a grimace.

'Don't,' Ginny snapped. 'I'm serious, Malfoy,' she said, now pointing her finger, 'if you don't do this... then, then... this house...' she pointed to the ceiling, 'I'll make sure it could never be yours...'

Draco laughed at her.

'You seriously don't expect me to believe that?' he said.

'You should believe it,' Ginny said him. 'I can dismiss your claim with a click of my fingers,' and she clicked them at that moment, forcing Draco to grasp his wand tighter; 'I don't even need a reason; and the perfect thing about it all is, even if you complain to my superiors, no one who knows the past is going to believe that I asked you for coitus in return for a house.'

Draco stared at her.

'Are you blackmailing me?' he asked in a low drawl.

'Call it what you want,' Ginny told him, she was now unbuttoning her blouse.

Draco was both outraged and impressed at the same time, that he couldn't decide what emotion to show.

'Astoria will believe me,' Draco told her, continuing to point his wand at her.

'Are you sure about that?' Ginny winked, confusing him even more.

'I will not have sex with you, Weasel,' Draco hissed at her.

'No?' Ginny was now taking off her blouse, exposing her white bra to him.

'Stop that,' Draco said whilst leerinh.

'No,' Ginny was now reaching for the front of her skirt.

'I have a girlfriend,' Draco practically yelled at her.

Ginny stopped unzipping her skirt to look up at him with a devilish smile.

'That's not going to stop someone who was sorted into Slytherin, is it?' Ginny asked through gritted teeth, finally tugging one last time at the zip and wriggling her hips out of her skirt.

Draco stared.

Funny.

For someone so perverted and horny, he would have pictured her as someone who didn't wear just plain white underwear. Perhaps this was more of an on the spot decision than he had thought. And although he preferred it when Astoria would throw on the silky stuff, the plain white knickers seemed to have made quite an impression on him, for he did not notice that Ginny's wand was hooked along the inside her skirt, and whilst Draco stared at her underwear, and his arm fell to his side, Ginny brandished hers and disarmed him.

In the time it took him to realise what had happened, Ginny had bounded onto him again, this time with enough force that they fell to the floor in front of the fireplace. When she kissed him again, her weight and smell almost ceased his ability to throw her off, and in amidst of the awkwardness of her near-nakedness, he felt himself lose control, and finally kissed her back.

From there it was easy for Ginny. Her tongue went exploring into his mouth, and Draco's did likewise. For several minutes they were locked in a battle, tasting the corner of each other's mouths and building up to the moment where they would have to move on.

Not surprisingly, Ginny did first.

She ripped the fancy suit from his flesh as unceremoniously as possible, revealing his pale white skin in which she could not wait to sink her teeth into. Draco hissed through gritted teeth when her mouth began to explore his body, and her tongue began to lick places that his girlfriend had not ventured too in a long time. At the thought of Astoria, there was a moment when Draco went to sit up – but Ginny pushed him back down and without hesitation began to undo his trousers.

She was just about done with foreplay.

By this point, both were aware of each other's arousals – Draco was unmistakably hard, and Ginny's scent could be smelled in the air. She made sure he stayed flat on his back as she went about removing her underwear, and then she straddled him with surprising flexibility and ease. And then, with one last bated breath, she began to sink down onto him.

She seemed to shudder with every inch that entered her, as if each single one of those inches were a symbol of fulfilment which had not been in her life for over a year. Draco watched on with no self-control, as Ginny moved so slowly on top of him, causing him to become breathless, and push Astoria completely from his mind. Once fully engulfed, Ginny needed a moment to be accustom to such an intrusion, before she began to move.

For several minutes they shared perfect synchronisation with one another – and then, as quickly as it had started, it ended, just like that. Both had reached the top of their mountains and both had gone over the edge; Ginny was soon clambering off to one side, attempting to regather her breath, and Draco was sitting bolt upright, attempting to grasp what had just happened. Neither spoke nor looked at one another, as realisation hit – for Draco at least – what they had just done.

There was no sugar coating it – he had just cheated on his girlfriend.

Once they had both retained proper breathing, they had dressed in silence, and it wasn't until they turned to face one another again – and hesitated – that they returned to their professional conversation.

'So, about the extension?' Draco asked her expressionless.

Ginny folded her arms and nodded. 'It will be arranged.'

Draco barely inclined his head before he passed her and made his way towards the front door. On the threshold he paused and pondered turning back to say something intelligent or witty that would force Ginny to regret what she'd just done – but when no words came to him, he simply turned the handle and left as quickly as he could.


	3. Chapter 3

03

'How did you manage that?'

With every ounce of energy that he had been able to muster, Draco had explained to Astoria with the straightest face possible about his success on getting an extension. Somewhere along the line he'd managed to leave out the part where he had been forced to cheat on her in order to accomplish said goal. He had contemplated telling her everything, such was the desire that he had to leave the old Draco Malfoy behind - but alas, it appeared, that the spineless man that his father had created still lingered inside of him somewhere, and it had always ignored guilt.

'Ticked all the right boxes, I guess,' Draco said to her, feeling himself become weak as she hugged him elatedly.

He feared she might smell something different about him – despite how much he had tried to scrub away the scent of Ginny Weasley, he himself could still smell her on him, but he was surprised and yet thankful that Astoria made no connection.

'I'm so relieved,' Astoria said with a deep breath, stepping back and surveying her boyfriend, 'when we got that urgent owl, I thought we might have lost it. But that Ginny girl, bless her, she's been great for us.'

Draco slightly flinched at the mention of her name, but managed to recover and nod in agreement.

'She said she liked you.'

'And that helped?' Astoria asked astonished.

'I guess,' Draco said with a shrugged.

'Bless her,' Astoria said, smiling and turning toward the kitchen, 'no wonder she has such good reputation as a real estate agent, she knows how to make her clients comfortable. I must owl her with our thanks-'

'I really don't think that's necessary,' Draco said quickly, causing her to look around at him, 'I kind of thanked her for us-'

'You didn't make a mess of it, did you?' Astoria asked, pointing at him with an interrogative finger.

Draco felt himself turn red at the thoughts of what had occurred between he and Ginny that afternoon.

'No, of course not,' Draco said defensively.

'Darling, please,' Astoria said with pleading eyes, trying to find the truth, 'I know you-'

'It was fine, dear,' he said firmly, 'believe me.'

Astoria glared at him for a few moments, looking him up and down, before backing down at grinning sheepishly at him.

'OK, good,' she said, moving forward again to peck him on the cheek, 'I'm going to change.'

She disappeared into their bedroom to change out of her work clothes and, while Draco stood there staring regretfully at the door, her voice called out to him and pulled him out of his brief contemplation.

'I'm still going to send that owl!' she was saying happily, this forced a groan of discontent from Draco, 'I just have to make sure she understands how much we appreciate her work!'

Draco shuddered at the thought of what Ginny would have said to him at that moment, if she had been standing next to him, listening to this conversation after what had happened today.

He could even see her right now, sitting in her apartment, having just received an owl and reading Astoria's thank you letter in which so much effort and care had been put into it. He could see her jaw-line twitch with every line she read through, until she got to the point where she could read no further, and instead submit to rolling around on the floor, laughing uncontrollably.

Grinding his teeth in fury, Draco turned towards the fridge and extracted a beer – he desperately needed to sit down and drink away his sorrows.

* * *

Somehow, within the mere space of forty-eight hours, Draco and Astoria's finances seemed to magically fall into place, and they found themselves in a position to finally be able sign along the dotted line. Astoria sent an owl back immediately once it had returned from its thank you delivery (which came with no reply), to set up a time they could all meet on the weekend and get the deal done.

That was all Draco wanted to do now – get over what had happened with Ginny, and put his life back on track.

But considering the week that he had had, his job searching had been put on hiatus, and he hadn't applied for a single job ad nor received any interviews for several days. He spent the majority of Friday at home, pacing around the house like a caged Hippogriff, waiting for a reply from Ginny on when they should meet. By the time the rat-a-tat-tat of owl beak on glass came, the sunlight had all but disappeared from the kitchen and Astoria was due home at any moment.

He opened the window and allowed their pet owl to hop inside, where it blinked up at him at hooted.

'Thanks, little Scorpius,' Draco said, snatching up the letter and pausing to scratch the owls head.

He still wasn't sure he liked that. Astoria had insisted that they call him that, after she had fallen in love with that name from a book she had read when she was little. She had told him it would grow on him, that he would eventually want to name their first-born Scorpius when such a time came – after he had half-choked on his kidney pie at the thought of them having children, he had absolutely dismissed scarring his first-born by calling them Scorpius.

Draco had just finished reading Ginny's letter by the time the front door opened as Astoria's bright face appeared and she spotted him sitting at the kitchen table. She smiled and said 'hello', closed the door behind her and headed over to him to give him a kiss.

'Ginny's reply,' Draco said, pushing the letter to the centre of the table once Astoria had put her things down and grabbed a drink from the fridge. 'She said we can meet at the house tomorrow, midday.'

Astoria smiled as she sat down and scooped up the letter. 'That's excellent,' she said, reading it for herself, 'oh Draco, aren't you excited?'

Astoria looked up at him; he was staring expressionless at the back of the letter.

'I suppose,' he said finally with a shrug.

'Are you serious?' she asked him, 'this is a huge step for us, we are buying a house!'

'I know...' Draco said, nodding and looking up at her, 'I'm sorry, of course I'm elated.'

The sides of her mouth twitched as she stared at him, and she shook her head and put the letter down.

'Well,' she said, quickly taking a sip of her drink, 'I certainly hope you show a little more emotion than that, should there ever be a day that you become a father.'

* * *

Words could not describe just how nervous Draco felt when he appeared on the spot in the familiar narrow alleyway with Astoria the next day; they were on their way to make such a life changing decision, one that would impact their future forever, and all he could think of was what he had done with Ginny. Perhaps, if she had not been the Real Estate agent they were meeting, he could have put it into the back of his mind temporarily and put on a brave face.

But as he approached his new house to be for the third time that week, and he saw her waiting for them on the top most step, the scene from the other night suddenly flashed in front of his eyes and he hesitated. He actually stopped dead several steps from the front gate.

Astoria, however, was oblivious - her face seemed to light up when she spotted Ginny, and she did not notice Draco's moment of hesitancy.

'I need to hug you!' Astoria said loudly at Ginny, rushing through the gate and climbing the steps to hug the redhead.

Ginny took the hug as professionally as possible, patting the very eager Astoria on the back a few times whilst staring and winking at Draco.

'We can't thank you enough for what you've done for the both of us this past week,' Astoria said to Ginny once they'd parted from their hug. 'You must have had to pull on some very big strings to get us to where we are today.'

'Hey, don't mention it,' Ginny said, waving off the compliment, 'it's all part of the job.'

'I have to mention it,' Astoria said to her, 'you definitely live up to your reputation as the best.'

'Oh, I don't believe I'm the best-'

'Rubbish,' Draco said finally, moving forward, 'you've been superb.'

Ginny couldn't help but let the sides of her mouth twitch at Draco as he said these words, but a smile did not appear completely on her face. She did not reply, either, instead she watched him put his arm lovingly around his girlfriend and narrow his eyes at her.

'Shall we then?' Astoria said after a moment, causing Ginny to remember that she shouldn't be staring at them like she was jealous.

'Absolutely,' Ginny said agreeably, opening the door behind them and stepping aside to let them pass.

They congregated into the living room, where Astoria breathed in deeply and let her eyes wander about the room aimlessly. It was in this brief moment that Draco and Ginny realised just exactly where Astoria was unknowingly standing. As she ran her finger along the mantelpiece that was arched over the fireplace, both Draco and Ginny automatically glanced toward one another.

'Come on over here, dear,' Draco said desperately, indicating the couch that was directly on the opposite side of the room to the fireplace, 'let's just sign this contract. We don't want to waste anymore of Weas- Miss Weasley's time than we have too.'

'Oh it's fine,' Ginny said sweetly, taking a seat in one of the small armchairs herself and crossing her legs, 'I don't want to rush you both into signing right away – you may take all the time you need, and I can make some tea if you like.'

She looked up expectantly at Draco, who merely curled his top lip and stared at her.

'Oh, tea would be lovely, thank you, Ginny,' Astoria said more so to Draco than her, and she did another circle of the room before setting down next to Draco on the couch and patting his leg.

'I have the papers here, though,' Ginny said, snatching up a briefcase that had been resting against the armchair, 'you should look over them and double check everything, but I can assure you that it is all in order.'

'We will check,' Draco said, taking the papers from her.

'I will make tea while you two look over them,' said Ginny as she snapped the briefcase closed and stood up suddenly, before heading towards the kitchen.

On the threshold she stopped and looked back over her shoulder at them.

'Do you want some sugar?' she asked politely.

Draco sat bolt upright immediately. 'Excuse me?' he said suddenly at her, making Ginny raise her eyebrows.

'In your tea,' Ginny said with a smile.

'Oh,' Draco slumped back into the couch, and received a curious glare from his girlfriend.

'You'll have to pardon him,' Astoria said, perusing her lips, 'two in mine thank you and the weird one here likes it black with one.'

Ginny nodded and, when she walked out of view, could not help but smile widely.

'What is wrong with you today?' Astoria asked her boyfriend, as she stood up to repeat what she had been doing just before.

'Nothing,' Draco said, clearing his throat and beginning to flip through the contract, 'just nervous.'

'Well don't be,' Astoria said, 'there is absolutely nothing to be nervous about, this place is perfect, and Ginny was a genius to make it work for us.'

'Mmhmm,' Draco was barely listening as he continued to read the contract thoroughly.

'Oh Draco, can you just imagine?' she asked him, doing laps around the couch, 'raising a family in this house, in this neighbourhood. I'm so excited!'

'Yeah, brilliant,' Draco said in agreement, still barely listening.

His girlfriend whacked him painfully over the back of the head.

'Ouch!'

'Be excited, Draco,' she said to him through gritted teeth.

'Alright, fine, I'm excited,' Draco said, rubbing his head, 'could you not hit me now?'

'You SHOULD be as excited as me,' she said, before she realised that she might have become a little too excited for her own good. 'Oh dear, I have to use the bathroom. Be nice to Ginny while I'm gone, won't you?'

Draco was waving his arm that he understood, but he was barely listening, he continued to read the contract as Astoria left the room, and a couple of moments later Ginny re-entered with the tea.

'Where's Astoria?' Ginny asked as she put the two cups down in front of a suddenly nervous Draco once again.

'Umm... bathroom,' Draco said to her loosely.

Ginny nodded and sat down on her armchair, seductively crossing her legs and staring at Draco as she sipped at her tea.

'Everything in order?' she asked him happily.

Draco nodded but didn't reply; instead he stared down at his cup as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. Ginny bit her lip and surveyed the empty hallway where Astoria had disappeared too, before refocusing her gaze on Draco.

'Do you want to know something?' she asked him nicely, making him look up at her finally.

'Err... I don't know, do I?' Draco asked, fearing what was coming.

Ginny leaned forward in her seat, causing Draco to react similarly, raised her eyebrows at him and said in the loudest whisper that she dared, 'I'm not wearing any underwear.'

She leaned back in her armchair, sipped her tea, and watched as Draco reacted to these words. He did exactly what she predicted; he leaned backwards on the couch, his eyes trailed from her eye-line, downwards to her legs, which she uncrossed just in time for him to get a glance up her skirt, before she crossed them the other way.

Ginny contemplated saying something else to him, but it was at that point that Astoria returned and happily scooped up her tea, oblivious to what was currently happening in the room. She took a sip and surveyed her boyfriend, who was quite white in the face by this point, and she seemed puzzled as to why.

'Draco, are you alright?' she asked affectionately, moving around to sit beside him, 'why, you're much paler than normal. You look like you've seen a ghost-'

'I'm fine,' Draco said reassuringly.

'No ghosts in this house,' Ginny said in a joking, and both she and Astoria laughed whilst Draco glared.

'Committing to something like this is a very big step for any couple,' Ginny continued, she was sipping her tea as lady-like as she possibly could, 'I'm sure you will feel better once it is good and done.'

'She's right,' Draco said to Astoria, 'I really will. I've looked over the contract, everything is in order - let's sign and go home to pack.'

Astoria smiled at him, pushed a small strain of silver hair out his eyes, and then nodded.

'OK,' she said, and it was then she looked down at her watch. 'I have to be at work soon, anyway.'

'I have a quill and some ink in here,' Ginny was saying, digging back into her briefcase, 'somewhere...'

After a moment or two she withdrew the two items and placed them on the coffee table in front of them. It was then that Draco and Astoria took turns signing where Ginny pointed, until eventually every line had been covered and Ginny was snapping her briefcase shut, having placed the contract back inside of it.

'Congratulations you two,' she said with a brimming smile, 'you now own your very own house.'

It seemed like it should have been a hallmark moment. Indeed, Astoria was jumping up and down around the living room with Draco, but Ginny could sense his heart wasn't entirely in it, considering the company that was present. However, whether it was because Astoria was completely oblivious, or that Draco could feign elation so well, the awkwardness went unnoticed, and at the very least, Astoria had her moment.

Soon they were all outside the front of the house. Ginny remained on the doorstep and waved at them as they trudged back along the garden path they owned. Well, at least, will own eventually; Ginny had ensured them that they would get the keys and be able to move in within a few days, and that she would contact them again when this could happen.

At the gate, Astoria turned and waved goodbye to Ginny once more before facing Draco and giving him a small kiss.

'I'd better hurry,' she said to him, tugging at his collar in an attempt to straighten it, 'work will wonder where I am. I'll see you later, OK?'

Draco nodded again as she kissed him, waved once more to Ginny, then took off up the street. He waited, standing at the gate, as Astoria disappeared into the alleyway along the road and he heard the familiar distant crack of someone disapparating.

It was then that he turned, slowly, to look back at Ginny who was still on the front step. Except now she was leaning against the door, and the smile had faded from her face. The two stared at each other down for a moment, before Ginny very seriously inclined her head at him, and walked back into the house.

Draco stood rooted to the spot, his bottom lip trembling, his heart racing and his mind boggling.

Eventually, much to his own dismay, his head dropped, his shoulders slouched, and he closed the gate behind him as he walked back up the garden path, up the steps and back into the house where he no doubt knew that she would be waiting for him.


	4. Chapter 4

04

It was evident, that despite how much Draco wished it weren't true, there was still far too much of his father within him. He spent the entirety of the next day pacing their apartment, attempting to pluck up the courage to tell Astoria just exactly what had gone on between him and their real estate agent. But he hadn't been able to go through with it.

He then thought about confronting Ginny, and demanding that they end what they were doing; but all he could picture her doing after thinking that was her laughing loudly in his face and ordering him to strip. He was weak, he was pretty pathetic, and he feared he was locked into a condition that he was not going to be able to get out of lightly.

At the same time, he had to put on a face around Astoria every time she talked about Ginny like the redhead was some sort of goddess. Once or twice he had come close to snapping the truth at her, but his coward mentality would stop him, and he'd end up just agreeing with everything she'd said. And then Astoria would go off to work, and he would repeat the process at home again, pacing the narrow hallways and cursing Ginny Weasley.

He was in the middle of writing a long arbitrary letter about Ginny's behaviour to the place of her work, when there was a thud on the door. He looked at his watch and deducted it was only lunch time. It couldn't be Astoria who might have left her keys, and the landlord didn't knock on their door for money until the end of the month.

Guessing that it was probably those religious muggle people who go door to door trying to rope you into some form of scam, Draco got up and prepared himself to send them away. When he pulled opened the door however, he got the shock of his life; Ginny stood there, smiling, half-waving, and gave him a looking over as if wondering when he was going to ask her in.

'Weasley?' Draco asked, he supposed he shouldn't have been shocked; this was bound to happen at some point. 'What are you doing here?'

'Oh well I thought I'd check in on how you two were doing,' Ginny said, finally walking over the threshold without being asked, 'you know, you two have a lot of packing to do now you own a house, is Astoria packing?'

She said this with a slight raise in her voice, as if determining where Draco's girlfriend was at home or not.

'Astoria is at work,' Draco said through gritted teeth, making her turn around to face him and smile.

'Oh good,' Ginny said, putting her handbag down on the kitchen table and sitting in a chair, 'that will make things much easier.'

'Make what easier?' Draco asked, but he thought he had a pretty good guess as to what she was referring to.

'Sex, you idiot,' Ginny said, she was beginning to unbutton her blouse nonchalantly. 'On this table, what do you say?'

'Err…' Draco fumbled with his words; he was astounded by this girl's boldness, nothing was going to be sacred by the time she was done with him.

She had already tarnished their new house by taking him there, now she was going to do the same here, a place that up until now, Draco had only had Astoria.

'Now I'm on my lunch break, and only have an hour,' Ginny was informing him, she was taking her sweet time unbuttoning her blouse, 'just make sure you're convincing, OK? Oh, what's this-?'

She reached for the letter that Draco had been writing, and before he could lunge forward and snatch it away, she was reading it. A smile etched on her face after the first sentence, and it only grew with every word she went on reading. By the end of it her face _had_ to be sore with how wide her smile was, before she let the parchment fall back onto the table and she continued with her blouse.

'Oh dear, you're not planning on sending that in, are you?' she asked him in amusement, 'I wouldn't if I were you, you're just going to end up looking like a fool of a boy.'

'I-'

Draco stood there rooted to the spot – fire began build up inside of him, rage which he had not felt boil on his insides for quite a while; yet, as the beautiful redhead stood up and began to remove her skirt, like a change in the wind, the fire turned into something completely different.

It was probably lust.

And then his mind went blank.

* * *

That night, Draco could scarcely look his girlfriend in the eye as they sat down to eat at the dinner table where he had taken the petite redhead - or was it, where she had taken him? He wasn't exactly sure. Astoria had commented on how quiet he was, and after assuring her that he was merely in deep thought, another problem arose later in bed when he had been unable to perform for his girlfriend.

'It's OK, Draco,' she said as he sat on the end of the bed, staring blankly into space again.

'It isn't,' he said through gritted teeth, 'you don't understand.'

'Of course I do,' she said, rubbing his back, 'it's been a rough couple of weeks for you, buying a house, meeting old faces and having to remember the bad times…'

'It's not- err…' Draco hesitated, he knew he desperately needed to tell her the truth, but he didn't know how, 'Astoria, I-'

'Let's forget about it,' she said to him sweetly, 'and get some sleep.'

Draco agreed and climbed back into bed. He dreamed of the redhead again and he hated himself when he woke and found his girlfriend had gone to work and let him sleep in. As he knew she would, Ginny showed up at their house again during her lunch break and was immediate in removing her clothing.

His self-loathing continued as he found himself able to perform intercourse with the pretty redhead just fine. And when the deed was done, and she asked him why he was less sour towards her than he had been the day before, he made the mistake of telling her the truth.

'You couldn't perform?' she asked him, in the middle of putting on her bra, 'but you seemed to do just fine with me. Maybe the problem had something to do with your pretty little girlfriend? Or is it she's no longer pretty to you in comparison with me?'

'Don't you dare,' he said to her threateningly, but she merely smirked.

'I'm just teasing,' Ginny said with a smirk, 'anyway, passing over your relationship problems, I came here to tell you that I will have the key for your new house tomorrow and that the three of us need to meet somewhere for the hand over.'

'You could have just sent an owl,' Draco said, but she shrugged sweetly whilst smiling.

'Where's the fun in that?' she asked with a wink, causing Draco to roll his eyes.

'Where did you have in mind to meet?' Draco asked, trying to sound the slightest bit adult.

'The Leaky Cauldron will be fine,' Ginny said, finally slipping on her stilettos and making for the door, 'I'll be there at one. And make sure your girlfriend is there, the handover can't happen unless all co-owners are present. Work policies.'

Ginny shrugged and left. Draco was left hanging on to the slightest bit of optimism that at least the Leaky Cauldon was a public place and there was no way the redhead would make a play at him out in the open like that.

* * *

Draco and Astoria arrived at the Leaky Cauldron with a lot of time to spare before their meet with Ginny, on Astoria's orders, just in case they might miss her somehow.

But it was fine; they ordered drinks, talked about their future and were just about half-way through their first Butterbeer when the beautiful redhead arrived, giving out free hugs.

'Can't stay too long,' Ginny said, after ordering a Butterbeer for herself, 'technically I'm still on the clock; I have this nice couple viewing a house down in Summerset in around about an hour. Then I have an auction over in Essex,' Ginny rolled her eyes whilst Astoria nodded, 'before this other loser has me showing him more houses up in Derby.'

She leaned in a little to Astoria, but still talked loud enough so as Draco could hear her.

'I think he just keeps calling me back just to perve,' she said in a rather carrying whisper.

Astoria kind of giggled but wasn't exactly sure how to react – Draco merely glared. Tom, the Barman and landlord of the Leaky Cauldon, arrived with his usual look of boredom with her Butterbeer and a room key.

'Oh thanks, Tom, I almost forgot,' she said, throwing the key into her handbag and taking a swig of her Butterbeer.

She turned and faced Draco and Astoria, who were staring at her bag where the key had disappeared, as if searching for an explanation.

'Oh, that's for a client,' Ginny said, pointing to her bag and smiling, 'we sometimes offer a room here in case it is ever needed for someone between houses. Very rare case of course, but we have an understanding with Tom here.'

She turned and pointed, expecting him to still be standing there – but he had already moved up to the other end of the bar to serve someone else.

'Anyway,' Ginny said, putting down her Butterbeer, 'that isn't why we're here, is it?'

Draco shook his head thoroughly, and Astoria just said, 'no.'

'Let's see, they are in here somewhere,' Ginny said aimlessly, rummaging through her purse, before finally pulling out an envelope with their names on it.

'Bingo!' she said, quickly handing it over to Astoria who looked a little frantic. 'Congratulations, home owners,' Ginny added with a grin.

It was difficult for Draco to be really happy and in the moment. He tried to look as elated as his girlfriend, but mainly he just hugged her, whilst casting a glare at the redhead casually drinking her Butterbeer at the bar.

'Oh Ginny, thank you so much!' Astoria said finally after calming down, she was ripping open the envelope to get at the keys.

'It's my pleasure,' Ginny said, and she winked at Draco when Astoria was rolling the keys in her hand, 'this is the best part of my job, to see the smiling faces from a success.'

Astoria was unable to stop herself, and hugged Ginny; the redhead took it in her stride, and went back to sipping her Butterbeer once Astoria had let go.

'It is a job well done,' Draco agreed, he was watching her carefully, 'this is probably the point where you move on to the next client, right?'

'Draco,' Astoria said warningly.

'I am very busy,' Ginny said in acknowledgement, smiling, 'I'll be going after this,' she indicated her Butterbeer.

'Oh, but we have so much to thank you for!' Astoria said, she was beside herself at this point.

'I think we've thanked her enough, dear,' Draco tried to say.

'Of course not,' Astoria said, waving away her boyfriend. 'Ginny, I'm heading into Diagon Alley to get some things for a house-warming party this weekend. We'd both really love you to come celebrate with us, wouldn't we Draco?'

Draco's eyes widened in horror.

'Astoria, please,' Draco said, 'I'm sure she's very busy.'

'A house-warming party, huh?' Ginny asked in amusement, she could see the horror etched across Draco's face and could hardly pass up such an offer.

'Yes!' Astoria said elatedly, 'please won't you come?'

'I wouldn't miss it for the world,' Ginny said, and she was smiling so widely at Draco, it was as if she'd just been hit with a Cheering Charm.

'Excellent!' said Astoria and she moved forward and hugged Ginny again, whilst Draco merely glared. 'I'm going to go get supplies right now! Draco? What are you doing?'

'He can stay here, buy me another Butterbeer and tell me about this party,' Ginny said, and poor innocent Astoria seemed elated at the idea.

'Great! He can do that,' said Astoria, she kissed her dumbstruck boyfriend on the cheek, before hugging Ginny one more time and disappearing to the back of the pub.

'Poor girl,' Ginny said seriously, taking another drink from her Butterbeer before turning to Draco. 'It's a pity she's so oblivious.'

'I'm not buying you another drink,' he said to her with a straight face, but Ginny merely laughed.

'Oh, I don't want one,' she said, shaking her head.

Draco just stared at her furiously as she rummaged through her bag for the key she had been handed by Tom a minute ago.

'Look Draco, we're in room seven,' Ginny said, holding up the key for him to look after finding it, 'funny, isn't this the seventh time we'll be doing this?'

Draco remained silent as the younger redhead finished her Butterbeer, slammed it down onto the bar in satisfaction, and then lead him by the hand up to room seven of the Leaky Cauldron.


End file.
